Cisco buys Twingo for $5 m

PHILADELPHIA: Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of equipment that directs traffic on the Internet, has agreed to acquire Twingo Systems for $five million in cash as it bolsters its presence in the network security market.

The deal, which is expected to close later this year, will add to Cisco's line of products that improve a network's ability to identify, prevent and respond to a range of security threats.

Privately held Twingo Systems, of Mountain View, California, makes security software that helps protect sensitive data at a user's desktop, and helps eliminate the risk that temporary files, email file attachments or other data could be improperly retrieved.

Cisco may use the technology and engineering resources of Twingo toward its internal efforts to build a large-scale security layer for virtual private networks, which are private paths on the Internet, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Tim Luke.

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